Vertimus

But some people will perceive those actions as an attempt at a smokescreen to hide what they perceive as her real values and beliefs. She does come from a part of upstate New York where almost everyone is a Democrat. But what is a Democrat exactly, what is a Republican? Are both parties 'all alike'? It's like saying all 'Hispanic people' are almost completely alike, whether they were born in Puerto Rico or whether they were born in a small town in Brazil.

I agree. Personally, I don't get the impression that she follows politics too closely, which is the right choice for some people.

Full agree. And Annie Mac is a fascist, spewing nonsense about how women must live and write within a very narrow scope because everything they say and do is projected publicly in some fashion, and might lead others, other people, other women, to think for themselves! Lord knows we cannot have that. All women must become clones of one another and speak in unison from a hive mind. "Clone up, Lana, or get out!" 'A&W' hopefully blew out the proverbial windows of Mac's office upon release.

I think Lana's forceful and stubborn that way, though, as she has the right to be, though whether that's a smart thing to do on a case by case basis is another issue. I'm not surprised in the least, especially if this entire project was written via the mic on her phone and developed out of the 'automatic writing' she spoke about. As stream-of-consciousness material, to make sure it's kept pure, it would have to basically be unedited lyrically. Many musicians are equally stubborn. It's their vision and the more likely they imagine something they write will make some people squawk, the more they push back within their own creative process. Among women, Joni Mitchell was that way in the 1970s, Tori Amos and Marianne Faithfull are this way still, and Nico said her philosophy was 'the power of the will to the end,' which, as it turned out, wasn't so life-affirming a philosophy for her. It's well-known that, in their respective bands, Ann Wilson, Chrissie Hyde and Siouxsie Sioux were the stars, leaders and bosses, stated or unstated.

Yeah, 'White culture' is pretty broad, and most European people are also 'White.' That also includes Canada as well as the United States. So to attack 'White culture' using those words is as stupid as attacking 'Hispanic' culture, when you really only mean the people of Peru or Honduras, as if all 'Hispanic' people are somehow identical and do not have their own specific traditions and history.

Totally, but it's not Americans per se, it's certainly not the majority. It's the small but loud minority of 'Woke' or, as someone here once brilliantly called them, the 'fake Woke people' who see a chance to get attention and so stand in the town square and make accusations about everything to anyone.

Exactly. Lana's adopted more personas in her songs and life than probably any other contemporary musical artist, as many really don't adopt personas the way Lana does and Madonna did in her heyday.

And hundreds of thousands or millions of people do, just as others are 'Anglophiles' or 'Francophiles' or love what they perceive as the romance of Italian culture, or the perceived subtly and nuance of Japanese culture, or the paradisiacal aspects of Hawaiian culture. You may be moved by a documentary about an isolated people living in rain forests. Look at all the people who now travel to Barcelona from all over the world. There's nothing insulting or appropriative about it. Imagine a Chinese student coming to attend college in the U.S. and someone saying, "Quit appropriating and embracing our culture as if it's your own!' It's nonsense. I live in NYC, and you often see Asian-Americans who have adopted the 'preppie' look, which did originate in American Anglo-Saxon culture. Big deal. It's theirs to 'adopt' if they so desire--especially if they attended Columbia university or one of the Ivy League colleges, which many do or have.

Exactly, 111. As if there's a script of very limited scope from which she must take her subject matter...is this the 1950s all over again, when women could only sing songs like 'Shrimp Boats'? I love 'Shrimp Boats,' but every and any individual is free to write about absolutely anything as far as I am concerned. So here's 'American Whore' in your face, fascists!

I agree completely. Many of the artists I really love and who have influenced and guided my life write from a 'negative' pole: Nico's masterful 70s solo and 80s work, the Velvet Underground, Marianne Faithful, Leonard Cohen, the Patti Smith Group, Patti's solo work, the Stones. I will never understand people who only want an Olivia Newton-John | Doris Day | Starland Vocal Band sort of world where there's bright, but plastic, flowers everywhere. To me, those are hard 'feeling types' who have no strength to look life in the face, and accept all the good, and all the bad. That's why I love Lana: you get both sides of the coin, and in hearty servings. And that's why I love '13 Beaches,' 'Live Or Die,' 'Last Girl on Earth,' 'Gods & Monsters,' 'Cola,' 'Heroin' and now 'A&W.'

That's true from the 5 songs I've heard, and, for me, it's not a plus, but perhaps after songs 'Beautiful' and 'Sweet Carolina,' both of which I like but perceive as very simple, she felt she needed to experiment and really spread her wings.

A-men. As I pointed out yesterday, Bob Dylan wrote a very pointed and nasty song about a gay man, and Joni Mitchell appeared in blackface on a late 70s album cover, but presumably because they're liberal icons, no one has cancelled them yet. On the contrary, Mitchell has absolutely been enthroned in the last five years, and, sadly, most of the people doing the enthroning don't even know most of her classic 70s music, they only know the Blue album and the songs 'Woodstock' and 'Big Yellow Taxi.' But everyone and their mother is jumping on the Mitchell bandwagon. I'm not saying her classic 70s work wasn't amazing; it was.

Exactly. And they will. As if individuals from all cultures and backgrounds don’t share in and enjoy the products of multiple cultures, both those physically near and physically far away. Poems, novels, translations, biographies, songs, television programs, movies, inventions, hard knowledge, architecture, words, slang, religions, concepts, general knowledge, foods, holidays… A-men, and poor (not economically poor) purely stupid people.

It could merely be a narrator of the song, or a persona, like those she’s trafficked in before. Just as we don’t know whether the narrator of ‘A&W’ is wholly or partially Lana, or just a character she’s created.

If you can buy, make, and/or eat tacos, you should be able to sing about them too. It’s not as if mentioning tacos in a song or song title is the same thing as claiming you are Mexican or of Mexican descent. Lana lives in Southern California, there are taco trucks and taco restaurants everywhere. No doubt she’s eaten a few and maybe made some at home too.

Thank you. I would prefer it without the distracting intro.

Me too.

Thank you!

But some members are saying they’ve heard Taco Truck (or 🌮 🛻) and ‘Grandpa’ too.